As the computer technology continuously progresses, the computer-based multimedia system, constructed with a computer and multimedia devices, is widely used in various occasions, such as offices, households, and business locations. In addition, intelligent appliances (IA) integrated computer devices is also gaining popularity.
However, the design of the conventional computer-based multimedia systems and IA is basically linking an audiovisual player or an IA device to a computer system through a computer interface. With this type of design, the user usually needs to boot the computer system in order to activate and operate the audiovisual player or the IA. In other words, the user must wait until the computer system completes the BIOS program initialization, POST program, peripheral detection and driving, OS activation, system configuration, and so on, before the user can execute the audiovisual program to play the audiovisual data.
To speed up the booting process of the computer-based system, a conventional way is to install a second operating system in another segment of the hard disk for activating multimedia playing or IA functions and shortening the booting time.